The rush in Ravichandran Smaran’s tone is obvious to miss. Just a day after his unbeaten 227 powered Karnataka to an innings win over Chandigarh at Hubballi and a place at the top of the table in their Ranji Trophy group, he turned up at the nets with the sole intention to get away from the red-ball rhythm and enter white-ball mood.
As first-class cricket takes a pause for two white-ball tournaments – Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy (SMAT) and the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy – beginning next week, Smaran doesn’t have much time to get adjusted to the shorter formats.
The 22-year-old left-hander is among the hot properties in Indian cricket right now, having shown that he can adjust seamlessly between formats. He had a forgettable start to his first-class career and in SMAT before announcing his arrival in the Vijay Hazare Trophy with 432 runs, including a match-winning century in the final. Then he ended the last Ranji season with scores of 203, 35 & 133* and has started this term with 77 & 10, 3, 220*, 54 & 4 and 227*.
“There are many guys in the country who are talented and are getting runs on a regular basis. It’s our job to just keep our head down and keep getting runs for the team and winning championships. There will be a lot of ups and downs along the way, but you have to sail through,” Smaran tells The Indian Express.
Standing tall, he has the left-hander’s grace, with his cover-drives already being the talk of the town. Having found runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, it was all about carrying the confidence into his red-ball game.
With Karun Nair returning to Karnataka, Smaran moved from No.4 to 5, which he says helped him put Karnataka in positions from where they can’t lose matches.
“The first five games last year didn’t go that well. This year, batting at number five gives me extra time to see what the bowlers are doing, to see how the conditions are in the middle. The mindset has always been to bat the opposition out of the game. And provide a platform from where we can get an outright win,” Smaran says.
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Looking for legacy
When he was part of age-group sides, Smaran looked up at the treble-winning Karnataka teams with awe. This time with the young core finding its feat, talk of winning the Ranji Trophy is already part of the dressing room.
“The legacy that Karnataka has bestowed upon us has been great. We’ve had so many greats going on to play for the country. We haven’t won the (Ranji) trophy for 10 years, and winning championships is everything for me,” he says.
But the SMAT is his immediate priority. Having proved himself in the long format and one-dayers, Smarn knows there is the T20 code to crack. In the Maharaja Cup, he showed that a strong technique can allow him to flourish in T20s as well.
“The template doesn’t change,” he says. “I have a set way of going about things in T20 cricket, that’s to take the game deep. But the switch will never be easy. We have a good four or five sessions to prepare ourselves. The bowlers will hit a different length and the batsmen will have to start clearing the boundary. There are a lot of things that run in your mind in terms of the shift that needs to be made,” he says.
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This is where the exposure at the IPL level could help Smaran. Bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad, he didn’t play last season due to an injury, but there was enough time for him to pick lessons from Heinrich Klaasen about how a middle-order batsman has to go about in T20s.
“SRH was a big experience because they have set a template in terms of how to play T20s. Just the opportunity to pick their brains and understand what’s going through their heads was great for me. Klaasen is successful in the format and to understand what he does in practice to get those big hits was really helpful. He had valuable inputs to give in terms of taking the game deep,” Smaran adds.
